Jaden Newman Gets 63 Points Against Boys; 9-Year-Old Plays on HS Varsity Team (VIDEO)
Jaden Newman had 63 points in her highest-scoring game and is the starting point guard for the girls' varsity basketball team at Downey Christian High School in Orlando, Fla. As if that isn't enough, she's only 9 years old, but the 4-foot-7-inch fourth grader has the confidence and skills to go far.
Jaden Newman's 63 points came during a game against boys on her AAU team during one of her particularly eventful sprints as a fast, agile scorer. The 9-year-old's high scoring was far from a fluke: she averages 14.8 points and 7.5 assists per game on her varsity team as well.
Her father, Jamie Newman, coaches for the Downey Christian girls' and boys' teams. He says little Jaden has dreams of making it big as a professional basketball player.
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"She wants to be like Diana Taurasi," Newman told ESPN recently. "She wants to play for her country, for Connecticut and in the WNBA."
All the attention that Jaden has garnered has made her very popular. She has been on the "Conan" late show, ESPN and various other media outlets. The fourth grader even out-dribbled NFL star Trevor Pryce live on "Crowd Goes Wild."
Apparently basketball prodigy runs in the family, because Jaden's older brother, 11-year-old Julian Newman, also plays on the varsity boys' team at Downey Christian. The sixth grader averages 17 points a game while playing against much larger boys.
Julian's prowess even gained him a profile in the New York Times last year.
The Newman kids' parents could be the ones at least partially responsible for their children's talents: Jaden said her father first put a basketball in her hand at only three years old.
Jaden's favorite basketball player is Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks. Like the WNBA league MVP, she wants to play for the Sparks as well.
